People: we’d like to be able to have homes and food Tech bros: this generation of smartphones uses paypal to harvest poor people’s organs and our new pervert glasses can instantly make anyone appear naked Government: gotta side with the pervert kidney vendors on this one

They tell me I’m uncultured, but I’ll always recognise a bit of Beethoven.

Save the humanities at the University of Hertfordshire. Existential cuts to the humanities are a sector wide problem: c.org/n9hYvWfVCJ

The redundancy programmes recently announced at Exeter, Northumbria and elsewhere are cruel, wrongheaded, and unnecessary. So much solidarity to those affected (inc. some of my personal intellectual heroes). This is such a dark hour in UK HE.

!!!

This is good on the complexities of doing family history (or just history history) with online open access sources. Riffing off and paraphrasing the AHA's campaign: We need historians because evidence neither finds nor explains itself. (With a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers).

It has been suggested that we do not value our academic staff. On the contrary, we have a powerful and detailed sense of your value, and how much it will improve the balance sheet if the older and more costly ones would shuffle off and find a corner to die in. thesphinxblog.com/2026/06/26/a...

nobody in British politics seems to want to say it but the single biggest driver of their inability to keep a prime minister for any length of time is that Brexit was stupid and ruinous and made everyone’s lives worse

We're delighted to announce that Volume 21 of the Burney Journal is now officially published! We're an open access journal, so you can find digital versions of all contributions freely available online here theburneyjournal.library.mcgill.ca/issue/view/62: as well as in print. (1/23)

Was chuffed to post this earlier today with my other hat (a large balloon hat) on. I’m well pleased with what we’ve achieved over at the @burneyjournal.bsky.social in the last two years, and grateful to the scholars, bibliographers and reviewers who’ve submitted. Do take a peek at our vol 21 lineup.

Museums and heritage freelancers! There is now a union for you! I've been working with @soupdragon2000.bsky.social and @dannybirchall.bsky.social to set up the Heritage Freelancers branch of @prospectunion.bsky.social Full details and joining info: heritagefreelancersunion.co.uk

48 hours in Paris

✨ Out today! ✨ Happy publication day to #AGoldenWorld @faberbooks.bsky.social 🎉🎉 uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-go...

And after all, why wouldn’t universities toe the line for *checks notes* Candy Crush businessman Mel Morris

Finalising slides for tomorrow's @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social talk. Free tickets available to join in person or online tftv.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...

Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes

It is no exaggeration to say York's Centre for Lifelong Learning changed my life. A creative writing course led by @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social has resulted in novels published, new friends, and later this year, I very much hope, a PhD. It's such a loss.

She’s here! And resplendent in gold foil! Available to preorder @faberbooks.bsky.social and out in a few weeks. Featuring 2 new graphics by the award-winning Cherokee artist Rebecca Lee Kunz. 🌻

Drunk on sunshine and wild swimming. Also one little glass of rosé.

📣 Job Alert (permanent) 📣 Lecturer in English Literature (Romanticism), The Open University www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRQ222/l...

The online edition of the Mary Hamilton Papers is finally getting its long-expected major refresh on 5 June: numerous corrections to transcriptions and mark-up, revisions to person identifications and improved tooltips, plus about 100 items newly transcribed. Watch for announcement! #18thC #langsky

remember when Google offered unlimited digital storage to colleges and universities and then when adoption reached the right levels rescinded that promise, capped everything, and started pricing those services without the subsidies? idk man just something I think about a lot

Then what is the fucking point in replacing Starmer with another coward?

This is a bit of a niche one, but we need all the help we can get at the moment

Bump for the weekend crowd. Thanks so much to everyone who’s already shared!

Really looking forward to this celebration of Judith Hawley: wickedly erudite and witty scholar of the #18thcentury. @royalholloway.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-celebrat...

Bump for the evening crew. Please spread far & wide! Thanks so much to everyone who’s shared already, bunch of legends you are.

That Streeting resignation letter in full:

Well, happy 230th anniversary to Edward Jenner carrying out the first successful vaccination against smallpox, opening up a field of science which has saved a number of lives too unfathomable to count, and which continues to be uncontroversial and widely accepted to this day

Calling A-level English teachers! Do you teach Austen, Brontë, or other 18thc stuff? Could you use a set of free research-informed teaching materials, which support students' historical, literary, & linguistic understanding, & foster debate about misogyny, consent, & healthy relationships? (1/?)

New Open Research in Practice case study: @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social @uoyenglishrl.bsky.social describes how an innovative, open access digital edition of the archive of Bluestocking writer Mary Hamilton (1756-1816) enabled new research and public engagement 📜🪶🔓 uoy.atlassian.net/wiki/x/awBEIQ

Sophie 1-0 Pulmonary embolism Birthday 10k tradition observed (albeit at the gentlest of paces). 42 seems very nice indeed, and i’m feeling more than usually lucky to age up a level.

Guys, the SEN solicitor said our Annual Review paperwork was among the best she’s ever seen *preens*

I am not the most patriotic sort, but i maintain that a beautiful warm spring day in britain is better than a beautiful warm spring day anywhere else, because people LOSE THEIR SHIT

Final plug for this bad boy, tomorrow evening. New research on scribbles in baronetages and Austen’s composition of PERSUASION.

Very sad. An endlessly informative, smart, entertaining & kind old-timer from Back When Twitter Was Good. I will miss him on my timeline.

@pennmaterialtexts.bsky.social hello! I just wanted to double check if Michael & Deven’s talk later today will be recorded & put on the youtube channel? Am keen to tune in but time difference making it a bit tricky.

V excited to be delivering this online talk for the wonderful @chawtonhouse.bsky.social on the evening of April 23rd. Book tickets now if you want to hear more about why I think Fanny Knight was the prototype for Sir Walter Elliot! chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/onl...

A Thing That Has Been Going On With Me Lately: or, Why I Will Regretfully Not Be Attending ASECS @asecsoffice.bsky.social: A few weeks ago, I posted this - & was immediately told by @gwenynen.bsky.social & several others to get off Bluesky & get to the GP pronto. Pretty smart of them, because (1/?)

English and Arts and Creative Technologies are delighted to welcome applications to our new MA in Creative Writing. To find out more about how to develop your creative writing skills whilst analysing the critical histories that influence them, visit our website or be in touch.

Look! It's finally happening, I'm so excited! Please share with your friends, people who assign books, and pets.

I've just seen that the link to the IPSEA 'Write to your MP' template letter is broken. Here's a working link. www.ipsea.org.uk/write-to-you...

Hello, all. I'm writing this thread to ask for your help. I know it's a bit of a downer at the start of a sunny spring weekend, but please read to the end. (1/?)

Remember when the metaverse was sold to higher ed as an essential part of the future of learning (especially online)? And how colleges and universities should go all-in on the metaverse so they could be "pioneers" of this new technology? There's a lesson here for those who choose to learn it.

Look at the great poster the U of Connecticut made for me--incorporating the witty trade card of Elizabeth Griffin, mid #18thc London map & printseller. Immodest of me--but I believe my talk (3/26, 4pm) will be live-streamed, so pls let me know, farflung Bsky pals, if you'd like more info'.

I’m chuffed to be back on the @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social airwaves tomorrow evening, celebrating the 300th anniversary of Dr Charles Burney (the music one, not the book thief one) AND the 250th anniversary of his General History of Music - a milestone in musicology. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

No Doubt ‘Don’t Speak’ busts right through the must-be-more-than-one-song rule.